Hey ya’ll!
This will be my spoiler-free review on Wicked Enchantment by Anya Bast. The first series I read by her, the Elemental Witches Quartet, was amazing and still remains one of my favorite to re-read to this day. I decided it was time to pick up something else by her, and this didn’t disappoint. It seemed at the beginning to be attempting to imitate a Merry Gentry book, I’m not going to lie, but it definitely came into it’s own and is deserving of a 4 star review. I’ll go more into the details later.
Goodreads Description Kindle Notes and Highlights
SynopsisThe human world found out about faeries and hundreds of years ago confined them all to a place called Piefferburg, basically a jail for all of their kind controlled by their oldest enemy. In present day, Piefferburg is split up into two courts: the Seelie and the Unseelie. The Seelie is meant to be all non-lethal magic, and supposedly good in nature. The Unseelie is the opposite, containing lethal magics and filled with brutes, a place where one must constantly watch their back for fear of catching a knife in it.
Aislinn is a member of the Seelie court, high born, and a close acquaintance of the queen. It is because of this that when Gabriel, a succubus looking to move into the Seelie court from the Unseelie court, arrives and is in need of a “guide”, the Queen chooses Aislinn for the job.
Aislinn’s mother didn’t know that her daughter possessed another skill besides prophetic dreaming. A much darker one. An ability that would put her on the other side of Piefferburg Square, with the monsters.
Aislinn is doing her best not to be affected by the succubus, who is doing his best to seduce her, after her recent break-up with her boyfriend who turned out to be nothing but a social climber. Despite her efforts, she is falling for him and is hopeless to stop it, and is starting to question her own place in the Seelie Court. Along with all of this, Aislinn is hiding a dark secret, one that could get her kicked out of the Seelie court for good.
Gabriel, who is the Lord of the Wild Hunt, went into the Seelie Court with one goal in mind: to convince Aislinn to abandon her court for the Unseelie Court, although he doesn’t know why the Shadow King wishes for him to do this. He tries his best to convince Aislinn to cross over, using the same wiles he’s used on many women, only he falls into his own honey trap. And he will find out what happens when you fail the Shadow King.
My ThoughtsI absolutely loved this story! The writing style, as expected, was pretty amazing and we got some really great characters in this one. I loved Gabriel, he was really sarcastic and witty and his banter with Aislinn made me laugh.
“My magick works on men, too,” Gabriel said, finally, “but I wouldn’t touch you with someone else’s dick.”
I do think he was very gullible when it came to the nature of his King, but it never took away from my appreciation of his character. Every good character is flawed, and he learns from it later.
I think Aislinn might have been written a little better, just because she came across kind of flat to me and I don’t appreciate that she didn’t confront her feelings on her court until Gabriel informed her that she had them. I also think there was a little inconsistency when it came to Aislinn and the Queen. Until we meet the Queen, Aislinn describes her as a close friend and how close Aislinn is to the throne because of it. But when we meet the Queen, she comes across very cold and unappreciative and vain, and only seems to care about Aislinn in the sense that she is another pawn for the Queen to control.
I really enjoyed the storyline, which I can’t talk about all that much, and the way the situation with the Shadow King plays out.
Finally, I really did like the way the relationship between Aislinn and Gabriel played out and I’m hoping to see more of it once I continue on with the series. Parts of it made me teary eyed:
I give you my blood, bone, and breath. I give you my soul and the spirit it rides in. Should you be discarded by others, I will cherish you. Should danger come, I will give my life to protect you. Should your honor be lost, in mine I will cloak you. Should you become sick, I will heal you. Should you be lost, I will find you. Ask me never to leave you. Stop me not from following after you. Where you go, I will go. Not even death shall part us. I am yours.
The book lost one star due to the fact that it really wasn’t that terribly unique. While it did become it’s own story during the book, it was too close to Merry Gentry for me to feel comfortable giving it 5 stars. I’m really trying to save my 5 star reviews for books that just blow me away and unfortunately this one didn’t make the mark.
One little thing that annoyed me was the use of really long, really unpronounceable (even in my head!) names. For example:
9% Aodh Críostóir Ruadhán O’Dubhuir, also known as the Shadow King,
2% Gabriel Cionaodh Marcus Mac Braire
Anyway, that’s it for this review. I really enjoyed this book and I hope that those of you like me that enjoy paranormal romance books check this one out! It was a great read
